A recent graduate of Trinity College in English and French and now a Translation Master’s student, this year’s Journal of Literary Translation (JoLT) Editor-in-Chief, Ioana Răducu, credits the publication itself for her start in translation. Working primarily with Romanian, her native language, and English, Răducu spoke to The University Times about translating poetry, engaging in the translatorial dialogue, her vision for the Journal and who she looks up to in the field.
Getting her start in the first semester of her first year, with her translation of a poem by the Romanian poet Nina Cassini, Răducu has since then worked with JoLT closely and translated numerous poems from Romanian to English and vice versa. Working in French-to-English translation as well, she displays a clear passion for her work. Discussing the process of translating poetry rather than prose, Răducu cited the complex prosody of poetry, rhyming schemes and rhythm as part of the challenge. She added that “it’s always a matter of negotiating and accepting that some things are never going to be carried across successfully, or at least not perfectly”.
Stating that her translations are based off of her experience of reading the text, Răducu prioritises conveying to the English reader what she felt in Romanian. Conversely, though, she believes that translation is not “all about emotion and experience. It’s also a little bit of anticipating readers’ expectations and meeting them halfway”. As she describes, it is always about finding balance. Thus, she tends to prioritise “prosodical elements”, as poetry is, to her, “an oral experience above all”. When asked further about the oral experience of poetry and transferring the sound of language through translation, Răducu described the process as “quite creative”, as English and Romanian are vastly different languages. However, when possible, she tries to find “congates” to relay the sound of one language to the other.
When asked about her experience translating the two languages, Răducu stated that she always found translating from Romanian to English more challenging because of her personal connection to many of the texts. “They are texts that I have certain memories attached to and texts that feel personal.” She clarified further that though she bases her translation on her own experience as a reader, at the same time, she tries to be objective and keep a certain distance between herself and the text. Stating that she finds it hard not to project her own experience onto the text when translating from her native language, she does not feel this issue as much when translating from English.
Furthermore, Răducu spoke about her stance on the belief, championed by translation-averse writers such as Milan Kundera, that translation is taking away from the original text and its meaning. She views this as a misunderstanding, saying, “I wouldn’t be of the standpoint that you’re taking away from it, although there are people who would argue that any sort of translation is, in a way, a form of violence to the source text. I think it’s more of a dialogue”. Translators, in Răducu’s view, compensate for these perceived losses. To her, translation is a way in which to enrich the text, as the original author and its translator, as well as the two languages, are engaging in the previously mentioned dialogue. Additionally, the nature of this process between the languages shows, in Răducu’s words, “the difference between the ways in which they don’t match up, but also the ways in which they can work with each other and compensate for each other”.
Moving on to the question of language again, The University Times spoke to Răducu about how she feels working with her native language through the medium of translation and whether studying and working in English has affected her connection to her mother tongue. “Reading in my native language is a lot more difficult when I’m in Ireland”, and “having no ways of accessing Romanian language literature, or at least it being a lot more difficult”, are the main issues for Răducu, citing a lack of accessibility for this problem. Translating is then a way for her to reconnect with her native language; however, it is much more for Răducu. What translation helps her with is to “ feel like I’m an active participant in the creation of the text, so not just a reader, but someone who is engaging with it and transforming it in a way.”
JoLT, which was founded in 2013, has been “an important publication” to Răducu ever since she started studying at Trinity, and she views the opportunity to edit the Journal as a “great privilege”. Working as Deputy Editor the previous academic year, her vision now, as the Editor-in-Chief, is based on what she enjoys as a reader and as a contributor. Wanting to draw upon the knowledge of what first connected her to the publication, Răducu wants to return to what first intrigued her about the Journal, whether that be interacting with it or attending the events. “One of the key aspects of the job for me is this sense of community that we have around it, it’s a very multicultural, very multilingual community”, said Răducu, further adding that she wants to “expand upon “this community aspect that we’ve already spent years building”. She hopes to foster a sense of belonging for those engaging with the Journal, whether as contributors or attendees of workshops and events.
Răducu spoke about how she and the editorial team select translations and how they work with submissions, praising the diversity of the Language Editors team. “For the languages that I cannot cover or the deputy and general editors cannot cover, we’ve got a whole team of people who can read those translations and make judgments about them”, she described. JoLT’s Language Editors work with their language of choice and thus check the validity and faithfulness of the translations submitted. However, for Răducu, there is another aspect in making the selection of what gets published. A “key factor” for her is a “point of creativity”. Prioritising the “creative agency of the translator”, she wants to avoid an overfocus on just the “traditional faithfulness of centering meaning”, as she views this as restrictive. Praising the fact that a publication such as JoLT can afford to be more creative and relaxed, and thus “showcase the translator as more of an individual who’s capable of experimenting with language, of playing with language”, Răducu states that she is partial to an “innovative factor” in the translations that are selected for publication. She appreciates when a translator is able to “put their mark” on a text, especially one that has been translated many times before.
Finally, Răducu revealed what Romanian works she would like to see translated into English, as well as her favourite translators. Starting off with an author that was recently translated into English by an Irish translator, Răducu praised Mircea Cărtărescu’s Solenoid. The novel won the Dublin Literary Award in 2024, which Răducu described as a moment of pride. Currently working on an English translation of the poet Mariana Marin, Răducu described the poet’s work as “absolutely harrowing” and oftentimes “verging on despair”. She feels, however, that Marin’s work should be translated into English as it bears witness to an important period in Romanian history – the 1990s. A translator and fellow Romanian Răducu looks up to is Iulia Gorzo. Gorzo recently made an appearance at a Trinity-based event discussing the translations of Anne Enright, which Răducu, of course, attended. She described her as “prolific”, citing the quantity of her translations as a point of admiration. Additionally, Răducu appreciates the work of the English translator Barbara Bray, especially her translations of Marguerite Duras’ novels, which she described as “wonderful”.
Thank you to Ioana Răducu for sitting down for an enlightening interview. As she begins her professional translation career, we hope to see more of her creative and thoughtful work.
